A Brief Description Of Transcendence

[Pav]

Enlightenment is the disillusionment of the self as a separate entity. It is not a belief but rather a sort of revaluation common sense; one moment it is obvious to you that you’re an entity imposing it’s will upon the mind-body and the next moment it is obvious to you that no such entity exists.

Disillusioning the ego involves a few things:

        1)      Realising that the self concept (thoughts/images/narratives) is not who you are and disidentifying with it. Detaching is from the self concept is enough if your aim is to reach peace, although you may do away with the self concept altogether since it serves no purpose and can only get in the way.

       2)      Realising that there was never any entity in control, that there is no real distinction between voluntary and involuntary. The actions and thoughts of the mind-body have been ‘happening’ all long just as the wind happens to blow. After coming to this realisation there becomes nothing left to do but sit back and enjoy the show. The approach changes from one of resistance, neurosis, and constant grasping for control to one of complete acceptance. Bliss/peace/happiness is an not emotional state (although elevated emotional state may be a side effect). It is rather the underlying peace present when in complete acceptance of all that is, including your emotions (being mindful, rather than attaching). Neurosis is the superimposed resistance. It is possible to be at peace while experiencing a depressive emotion; likewise you may also be neurotic while in an ecstatic state. The emotion only becomes ‘negative’ once you have labelled it as such.

                 Acceptance does not mean that you sit idly, taking no action (although that is a valid option). Preferences, values, authentic desires, empathy, love and enjoyment still exist. Only now you are no longer attached to needing any specific outcomes; you are able to play whichever game you wish and engage with it to the fullest, without being hampered or set in a perpetual state of anxiety by the ego. Rigid moral principles will only get in the way of genuine love and compassion and ego will only get in the way of your authentic desires; since the ego is namely concerned with survival, comfort, security and social status, while moral principles are too stringent to allow for the nuance of real situations and give the ego a basis for moral righteousness and the demonization of others. Once you get out of your own way you find that you function effortlessly, the egotistical neurotic whose always trying to call the shots is no longer present, and your actions become much more aligned with your fundamental values.

         3)      Self realisation; which involves getting a sense of what it is that you are through firsthand experience. It may be interpreted as ‘nothingness’. Nothingness does not mean that ‘something’ does not exist; rather nothingness is more like vacuum of empty space in that it contains the whole universe. In this sense, perception arises out of the void. Nothingness cannot be experienced directly, but you can get a sense that it’s there; similar to the eye’s blind spot, you cannot see it directly but if you hold your finger in the right position you can tell that it’s there.

Enlightenment and self realisation are near instantaneous, permanent realisations. They do not require ten years of meditation, nor do they need to be constantly maintained. Once they have been seen, they cannot be unseen.

Meditation, yoga, presence, ect. are practices which may be helpful in reaching a state of Being-perception. Being-perception is a temporary state which does require years of practice to attain and can be present to varying degrees, unlike the on/off switch of enlightenment. Although, it is possible to attain B-perception instantaneously under certain circumstances, for instance psychedelic drugs may force you into this state of perception.

In ordinary consciousness, the mind is constantly dissecting, labelling, categorising the world; while a great deal of our sensory information is filtered out from awareness altogether. This rubrisisation of our perceptual input causes the world be become familiarised. Being-perception is the disintegration of these abstractions; you experience the raw, unadulterated perception before it is touched by the conceptualising mind (prefrontal processes). The world is viewed in all its 'suchness'. It becomes defamiliarised and the ‘valve of perception’ becomes more open to you. B-perception is magical; it is as if experiencing for the first time. The sky may be perceived as an unimaginably brilliant blue, you may see an infinite complexity in the patterns formed by a wave or in the sound of the rustlings leaves, all the while leaving your experience completely undissected. To experience raw, unfiltered perception is quite possibly the most beautiful things you could experience.

B-perception necessarily puts you in an egoless state, although it is not enlightenment. Every human being has experienced moments of egolessness only to return back to the egoic state still attached to their ego. Having an egoless experience does not necessarily trigger the realisations I spoke of earlier.

Other transcendent experiences include:

-          The realisation of the inherent perfection of the world

-          Unconditional love

-          Unconditional gratitude

I know of no techniques or meditations to attain the three experiences/realisations listed above (perhaps high levels of B-perception will get you there?). They happen to you seemly at random; suddenly overwhelming you as you are taken in by surprise. It is as if the brains 'gratitude/love valve' have opened to the fullest, producing the maximum amount of gratitude or love that the brain can physically produce. You will feel total gratitude for the mere fact of existence itself. People who you previously disliked during egoic state of consciousness will now be approached with nothing but love. You may look towards a rock on the ground and feel overwhelming love for the rock, while seeing its inherent perfection. The experience of just one of these is enough to change your outlook on life, to validate you life and see that it was fundamentally worth living.

While I don’t believe enlightenment alone will trigger these experiences, it does seem that they are fundamentally incompatible with the ego; as such enlightenment may be a good place to start.

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What are your thoughts on these descriptions? Do they match up to your own experiences? 

Edited October 12, 2016 by Mat Pav

[Pav]

I'd like to add another little analogy. 

The ego is like a self regulating system caught in overdrive. The system has fooled itself into believing that it has control when in actuality, there is none. The second aspect of enlightenment that I mentioned above, is where this realisation is triggered into the system. Once this realisation occurs, the system ceases to fight with itself, and finally allows itself to simply function.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Mat Pav

[cetus]

13 minutes ago, Mat Pav said:

The ego is like a self regulating system caught in overdrive

@Mat Pav Speaking of ego and it's " regulating system": I realized yesterday that it's ego that creates the  illusion that time is flowing from past- present- to future.

[bobbyward]

@Mat Pav about a year ago i was reading a direct pointing book and had a sudden realization that the self was a concept, there is no controller of thoughts and the body, and there is no experiencer just experience. it didnt seem like i done anything to make it happen it just seemed to happen before i knew what was going on. overtime as i see no me again and again the experience of no controller and no experiencer is becoming more apparent.

I have not had this self realization experience you talk about of getting a sense of what i am, the nothingness. 

 

 

[Deep]

@Mat Pav Yeah, I feel exactly the way you described. I haven't experienced Infinite Bliss yet but maybe in the future I will. 

Edited October 13, 2016 by Deep